The Athletic has live updates of the 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony.
The Ballon d’Or ceremony is arguably the most glamorous and important event in the football calendar, when the European game’s best players and coaches are recognised in front of a global audience of millions.
For many players, winning a Ballon d’Or is among their biggest career objectives, so it is hard to comprehend why Real Madrid have essentially decided to boycott the event, a decision influenced most of all by their powerful president, Florentino Perez.
There was shock last year when the Spanish club decided, at the very last minute and with 50 members of staff ready to travel, that they would not attend. That choice was made after learning that none of their seven nominated players — including Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham (who finished second and third) — had won the men’s award, which was claimed by Manchester City’s Rodri.
Awkwardly, it meant Carlo Ancelotti was unable to receive the Johan Cruyff trophy, his prize as best men’s coach for 2024, and nobody from Madrid was there to accept the award for club of the year. Ancelotti, who was replaced by Xabi Alonso as Madrid manager in May, only finally got his hands on his award last week. The Spanish club acknowledged neither of the prizes.
Madrid’s men’s players will once again be absent from this year’s event in Paris, despite Vinicius Jr, Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe again being nominated for the main men’s prize. Thibaut Courtois could win the Yashin Trophy for the best goalkeeper and 20-year-old centre-back Dean Huijsen is a nominee for the Kopa Trophy for the world’s best under-21 player.
To help explain the situation, The Athletic held over two dozen conversations with current and former Madrid staff, sources close to current and former players and coaches, as well as other industry figures who have dealt directly with the club during Perez’s two terms as president.
All requested anonymity to speak honestly about how things really work around the Bernabeu.
Every other top European football club will send delegations for tonight’s glitzy gala at the Theatre du Chatelet, whether or not their players are likely to win any prizes.
But for Madrid, it seems as if the Ballon d’Or just does not exist — the award has not been mentioned on any of its official media channels. All the sources consulted for this article, who would be well-placed to know, agreed that the decision for Madrid to adopt such an attitude could only have been made by Perez.
During his two spells as president (2000-2006 and 2009 onwards), the now-78-year-old has centralised power at the club so that every final decision is his to make.
“Florentino controls everything: football matters, communication, business, every department of the club, he is over them all,” says a source who has dealt regularly with Madrid over the past decade.
But the Ballon d’Or stance has caused problems for other club staff whose jobs involve promoting Real Madrid and dealing with sponsors and other commercial partners. As the highest-profile awards ceremony in football, it can polish the club’s image and grow its fanbase. Boycotting it in such an abrupt manner was seen by many internally as a PR own goal last year.
“A lot of people at the club, probably the majority, thought it was a terrible decision, particularly the timing of it and the way it was communicated,” says a staff source. “It generated a lot of frustration.”
Manchester City fans’ message to Real Madrid last year: Stop crying your heart out (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
For many around the Bernabeu, it was just another example of the ‘siege mentality’ of Perez’s presidency. Multiple sources told The Athletic that Perez has long believed Spain can be divided into those who love Real Madrid and those who hate it. One summed up the general feeling by saying: “Florentino really believes that half of Spain are Madrid fans and the other half are anti-Madridistas.”
UEFA and its president, Aleksander Ceferin, joined this list of ‘anti-Madridistas’ after Perez’s breakaway European Super League project quickly collapsed in April 2021. Sources familiar with Perez’s thinking said they believed UEFA influenced the decision not to award last year’s prize to a Madrid player as a direct consequence of Madrid continuing to push the Super League project, even though the Ballon d’Or awards are decided by a vote of 100 independent journalists.
Multiple sources maintain that many of Madrid’s longer-serving staff, especially in the communications department, believe that much of the world is actively working against them. This perspective helps explain the vehemence and animosity with which Real Madrid TV (RMTV) pursues perceived enemies of the club, such as Spanish referees, or Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
Content is not directly scripted by Perez or the club hierarchy, but all at the station know the editorial line they are required to take against anybody deemed an ‘anti-Madridista’. A former club employee says that the TV station, which is broadcast free-to-air in Spain and available globally online, is important to Perez “for political messaging reasons”.
Vinicius Jr won the Ballon d’Or’s Socrates prize for humanitarian work in 2023 (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Such control of the messaging by Perez, who wanted to be a politician before he became a very successful businessman, has helped push through changes to Madrid club statutes that seriously limit the number of potential challengers to his presidency. It has also helped continue support for the European Super League project, and aided the constant battles for money and power with La Liga’s president, Javier Tebas.
Storms of outrage also help distract fans during moments when the team is not performing well. Last year’s Ballon d’Or boycott came just hours after Clasico rivals Barcelona had humiliated Madrid in a 4-0 defeat at the Bernabeu. The club’s angriest criticism of referees exploded in early 2025, just as the team were struggling badly through a season that they ended without winning any major trophies.
“We’re against everyone and everything,” one RMTV pundit said on air immediately after last year’s Copa del Rey final against Barca. Madrid’s hierarchy let it be known they were considering boycotting that game, after the match referees emotionally complained about videos accusing them of bias that were broadcast in the days leading up to it.
Barca won the trophy, but instead of analysing another lost Clasico, Madrid fans were fed the message that the club hierarchy were once more protecting them from attacks on all sides.
When the 2025 Ballon d’Or nominees were announced in early August, Madrid did not even acknowledge the news on their website or social channels.
On the women’s side of the club, Scotland international Caroline Weir is among the female nominees and is expected to travel, but there has been no public acknowledgement of that achievement from Madrid. Team-mate Linda Caicedo’s nomination for the under-21 award has not been celebrated either.
Around the club, there is a recognition that Perez’s views on UEFA and media outlet France Football, joint organisers of the prize, have not changed. Most staff, and multiple sources close to nominated men’s team players, had long accepted that they would again not be attending.
While no Madrid player is likely to win this year’s main men’s award, even being nominated is a huge opportunity for players, given the global exposure. There is also the individual feeling of importance and recognition, so important for top competitors.
“I’ve no opinion about that at all,” was the ironic and resigned take of someone close to a Madrid player.
Last week, a Madrid club source said the men’s players would find it difficult to travel to Paris because of the Tuesday night kick-off (at 9.30pm local time) against Levante the next day.
The 2024 winners: Aitana Bonmati and Rodri (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Another irony of the whole situation is how the Ballon d’Or has previously been crucially important to Perez’s project at Madrid. Many of the ‘galactico’ signings of his first presidency were winners of the individual men’s award — including Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Michael Owen and Ronaldo. During his second spell, Madrid were very publicly proud when Cristiano Ronaldo (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017), Luka Modric (2018) and Karim Benzema (2022) took the prize.
“They should give a Ballon d’Or for the best president, too,” Perez joked on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser while attending the 2017 ceremony. Few around the Bernabeu find humour in the club’s relationship with the award these days.
Most sources consulted for this article maintained that, in the end, whether or not players attend the Ballon d’Or ceremony, or whether or not RMTV go after referees, the team’s performances on the pitch are not affected. Madrid have won 37 trophies over the 22 completed seasons of Perez’s two presidencies, and revenues have grown by many multiples to almost €1.2billion (£1bn; $1.4bn) during 2024-25, the highest in world football.
Yet there are costs in the constant battles against perceived enemies. Outside the Madridista bubble, damage is being done to the club’s image. Among those who ultimately suffer are players, coaches, staff, and everyone who has to live and work in such an environment of tension and paranoia.
“That noise does not help, being against the world,” says the agent of a former Madrid player.
“A club like Madrid cannot be fighting everyone: La Liga, UEFA, France Football. Madrid is very big but the policy of the club — the referees, the videos — I really cannot understand.
“You can’t always be fighting against everyone.”
(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
